Office Alternatives?

[Sogni]

Ok I just got to my last straw... and need office software of some sort on my Mac...

But giving around $500 to M$ just makes me cringe (plus, I don't have that much to spend in the first place).

I know of AppleWorks, but don't know it in a working environment. People that have it, can you give me your oppinions on it?

And are there any other alternatives? (that don't cost an eye and a leg like M$'s)

I need to be able to read Word and Excel documents - writing them is not an issue since I have a habit of sending documents as PDFs anyway.

And it needs to run in OSX, hopefully without classic - but if with classic it needs to run so good that I can't tell it's classic!

Thanks for any info.

SOMEONE PORT STAROFFICE DANGIT!!! PLEASE!!!!

[dricci]

The latest update of AppleWorks allows better import/export of Excel and Word documents. I really like AppleWorks, although I agree that it's GUI needs to be refined a little for OS X. But other than that, it's great. Just make sure you search Version Tracker for the latest update if you decide to use that.

Also, there's an app called "Think Free Office." It's commercial, but it has a lot of MS-Office like features, and can import/export PowerPoint presentations, something that AppleWorks lacks. Check it out at http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=14398&db=mac

That's all I can think of at the moment. Hopefully, somebody will port Open Office. I have no idea what is taking so long.

[Sogni]

Ok I downloaded Think Free Office and so far I like it, altho I haven't had a chance to put it through it's phases... 29 use demo sucks!
Guess I'll just leave it up and running all the time! heh

But for 50 bucks... I might seriously concider it. I need to learn more details on it.

I did run into one problem tho...
How do you make a PDF from it???!!!???!!!
The standard Print Preview > PDF I'm used to is gone replaced by it's own Print Preview... And there is no Save Print to File... WTF?
And I do have Adobe Acrobat 5.0.5... but I can't make a PDF out of any of it's documents... GRRR!!!!

That might be the one thing that kills ThinkFree Office for me... shesh!

[dricci]

Try Print > Preview button
That should take you to the OS X print screen with a preview button that'll take it to Preview instead of the built in one.

[Sogni]

Originally posted by dricci
Try Print > Preview button
That should take you to the OS X print screen with a preview button that'll take it to Preview instead of the built in one.

Nope - no there... that's been replaced, and no preview button there.

[Jadey]

Mac Link Plus reliably converts Word, Excel, Wordperfect and many other PC documents with formatting intact so that you can open and edit them with Appleworks, which is completely adequate in my opinion.

[Sogni]

Originally posted by Jadey
Mac Link Plus reliably converts Word, Excel, Wordperfect and many other PC documents with formatting intact so that you can open and edit them with Appleworks, which is completely adequate in my opinion.

That's what I will probably end up doing... too bad, Think Free Office almost had me, just one little detail like the lack of being able to easily create a PDF killed it... sad... oh well...

Now, since I'm back in college - shall I go through the hassle of getting the Educational Version of AppleWorks*?

Anyone know if the Education version of AppleWorks is any different from the Retail ("normal") version?
I was reading Apple's details about it and there is a different description from the Educational site (leading me to belive it's different or even cripled somehow).

*Knowing me - I'll spend the extra money to walk into the store and walk out with it THE SAME DAY, I hate paying for something and waiting for it to get here! Not to mention Shipping Charges! Just as bad as Tax! Then add both tax and shipping on the same order? BLAH!
Photoshop 7 was a different story - I went through 4 or 5 stores before I gave up and ordered it - and at that point I just had to over-night it with Saturday Delivery!
What can I say?

[nkuvu]

I tried ThinkFree briefly, but I was not impressed. Granted, the version I used was not OS X native. The OS X native version was in the works, IIRC. But the demo version couldn't open Word files at all, had a difficult time opening a dialog box (for example, I'd press the "open file" menu selection and 5-45 seconds later I'd get the dialog box).

I hadn't heard about Mac Link before. Thanks, Jadey. Of course, I don't do a lot of transferring files, so this isn't a huge priority for me...